From a $90 box that comes with its games to a $789 PC that plays the Wii U, with FPGA consoles that run your old cartridges in between, compared on what each one actually plays on the big screen. Tell the picker what you want and it finds your console.
All ten drawn to the same scale by real width, cheapest on the left. The light on each one is its approach: orange for FPGA, blue for software, green for official. Hover one to find it in the charts; click to jump to its entry.
Pick the system you most want to play and a budget, and the matching devices light up in the list below.
| Device | NES | SNES | Genesis | PS1 | N64 | Dreamcast | PSP | GameCube | PS2 | Wii | 3DS | Wii U | Switch | PS3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro$90 · Software emulation | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | playable | playable | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Evercade VS-R$100 · Official and licensed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| MiSTer Pi Mega Pack$160 · FPGA | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| ModRetro M64$230 · FPGA | no | no | no | no | full speed | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus (Intel N150)$247 · Software emulation | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | playable | playable | playable | no | no | no |
| Raspberry Pi 5 kit (8 GB)$250 · Software emulation | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | no | no | no | playable | no | no | no |
| Analogue 3D$270 · FPGA | no | no | no | no | full speed | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Nintendo Switch 2 with Nintendo Classics$500 · Official and licensed | full speed | full speed | full speed | no | full speed | no | no | full speed | no | no | no | no | full speed | no |
| Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8745HS)$629 · Software emulation | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable |
| Steam Deck OLED, docked$789 · Software emulation | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | full speed | playable | playable |
Full speed across the libraryPlayable: lighter titles, or with per-game settingsNot realistic
A field-programmable gate array is a chip that can be rewired, by a file, into a copy of another chip. An FPGA console loads a "core" that re-creates the original console's processor, video and sound chips as logic rather than as software, so the game runs the way it ran in 1996: the same clock, the same quirks, with input lag measured in fractions of a frame. The catch is that someone has to write that core by hand for every system, which is why FPGA stops at the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 era, and why the N64 took until 2025.
On this list: MiSTer Pi Mega Pack, ModRetro M64, Analogue 3D.
A normal processor runs a program that pretends to be the old console, translating every instruction and redrawing every frame. Because it is just software, it scales with the chip you buy: a Raspberry Pi 5 handles everything through the Dreamcast, a $250 Intel N150 box adds most of the PlayStation 2, and a Ryzen mini PC or a docked Steam Deck reaches the Wii U, Switch and some PlayStation 3. The price is a few frames of input lag, per-game settings at the top of each device's range, and the fact that you supply the games yourself.
On this list: Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro, GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus (Intel N150), Raspberry Pi 5 kit (8 GB), Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8745HS), Steam Deck OLED, docked.
The console maker, or a company that has licensed the games, sells the emulator and the games together: Nintendo Classics on the Switch 2, Evercade's cartridges, Atari's 2600+. You never touch a ROM and nothing is in a legal grey area. You also never choose what to play: you get the catalogue they curate, at the resolution they chose, and on a subscription the games go away when you stop paying.
On this list: Evercade VS-R, Nintendo Switch 2 with Nintendo Classics.
The cheapest plug-and-play box, with the legal problem to match
$904 of 14 consoles at full speed
The Super Console X2 Pro is what you get when you search "retro console for TV" and click the first result: a palm-sized Android box that boots into EmuELEC, ships with two pads and a card of tens of thousands of games, and plays everything through the PlayStation 1 well. Nintendo 64, PSP and Dreamcast stutter, and the PS2 logo on the box is marketing. The bigger issue is that card: those games are unlicensed copies, which puts the box in a legal grey zone that nothing else on this list shares. Reviewers suggest treating it as a $90 EmuELEC box and loading your own dumps.
Price: $89.97 at the PCWorld and StackSocial storefronts (list $159.99); about $99 with two controllers on AliExpress.
Sources: PCWorld storefront Geeksided review
The legal, physical way to collect 8-bit, 16-bit and arcade games
$1003 of 14 consoles at full speed
Evercade is the only company still selling new retro cartridges in volume: more than 60 licensed collections from Atari, Namco, Capcom, Toaplan, Data East and a growing line of indie carts, each a physical box you own. The VS-R is the TV console for them, with two cartridge slots, four controller ports and a 1080p output with scanline filters. It is software emulation on a modest ARM chip, so it stops at 16-bit and arcade with a handful of 32-bit titles (the Tomb Raider collection ships in the bundle). It loads nothing else, and that is the point: no ROMs, no settings, no grey area.
Price: $99.99 list with one Giga Cart bundled (Blaze); Best Buy lists a "VS-R Solo" at $119.99 but it was unavailable.
Sources: Blaze announcement Best Buy
The most accurate way to play everything through PlayStation 1, for the price of an Android handheld
$1604 of 14 consoles at full speed
MiSTer is the open-source FPGA project that re-creates consoles, computers and arcade boards chip for chip, and the MiSTer Pi is the clone board that cut its price in half. Its cores for the NES, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo, PC Engine and hundreds of arcade games are cycle-accurate, the PlayStation 1 core is regarded as one of the project's best, and the Saturn core now runs most of its library. The N64 core works but is starved for memory bandwidth on this chip, which is why ModRetro built the M64. Setup takes an evening with the update-all script, the analog board drives a CRT, and SNAC adapters take original controllers with no added lag.
Price: $160 list ($155 on sale) for the Mega Pack with 128 MB SDRAM, A/V Pro board, USB hub and case; it was sold out on 4 November 2026. QMTECH clones from about €150 on AliExpress; a Terasic DE10-Nano alone was last listed at $215.
Sources: Retro Remake store Lon.TV on the QMTECH clone MiSTer forum price thread
Your N64 cartridges on a modern TV, with a bigger FPGA than the Analogue 3D for less money
$2301 of 14 consoles at full speed
The ModRetro M64 launched on 28 July 2026 as the second FPGA Nintendo 64 in nine months and the cheaper one. It runs the open-source MiSTer N64 core on an AMD Artix UltraScale+ chip with the bandwidth the DE10-Nano lacks, plays every NTSC and PAL cartridge from four original ports, and ModRetro says it will publish its improved core. Held Games scored it 4.2 out of 5. Like the Analogue 3D it plays nothing but N64 and loads no ROMs; unlike it there is no 4K HDR output or VRR, and the box may not include a controller, so the realistic first purchase is about $320.
Price: $229.99 (early-bird $199 ended); the M64 Pro Controller is $89.99 more. Sources disagree on whether a pad is in the box, so budget for one.
Sources: Held Games review CNX Software Time Extension on the MiSTer core
The same money as a Pi 5 kit, with PlayStation 2 and GameCube within reach
$2477 of 14 consoles at full speed
The Intel N150 mini PC is the sleeper of 2026. It costs what a Raspberry Pi 5 kit now costs, because the Pi's price went up and not because this came down, and it is a real x86 computer: Batocera installs in minutes, every emulator is the desktop version, and it also runs a browser and Steam. Everything through the Dreamcast and PSP runs at full speed. GameCube and PlayStation 2 work at native resolution for most games and fall apart on the demanding ones; reviewers call them a stretch goal. It has a small fan, 4K60 HDMI and the footprint of a coaster.
Price: $246.99 in January 2026 (Tom's Hardware), up from $156.87 in August 2025; Beelink and Acemagic N150 boxes are $217 to $259.
Sources: Tom's Hardware, price parity Starry Hope, mini PC tiers
The classic do-it-yourself retro box, now at the price of a mini PC
$2506 of 14 consoles at full speed
The Raspberry Pi has been the default retro build for a decade, and the Pi 5 is the first one that handles the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast properly: Soulcalibur at 60 fps in 1080p, most N64 titles at their original frame rate, PSP in 2D and lighter 3D. GameCube is a proof of concept and PlayStation 2 is out. What changed in 2026 is the price. The memory shortage pushed the 8 GB board from $80 to $180 and the 16 GB to $305, so a finished kit now costs what an Intel N150 mini PC costs. Build one for the tinkering, the GPIO and the community images, not for value.
Price: about $250 built: the 8 GB board is $180 list after three 2026 rises, plus a 27 W supply, Active Cooler, case, microSD and a pad. The 4 GB board ($110) is enough for everything through PS1.
Sources: Phoronix, October 2026 prices Botmonster build and benchmarks Batocera wiki
The best-looking N64 you can plug into a 4K TV
$2701 of 14 consoles at full speed
The Analogue 3D is a Nintendo 64 rebuilt in a Cyclone 10 FPGA with four times the logic of the Pocket, and it does the one thing no software emulator or official re-release does: it plays every cartridge, from four real controller ports, at 4K with HDR and variable refresh, with a CRT mode that reproduces the blur those games were drawn for. Engadget gave it 80 out of 100 and noted that modern processing cannot fix the games' own frame-rate dips. It plays nothing else, loads no ROMs, runs no community cores, and its price went up $20 for tariffs a week after launch. For an N64 collection it is the one to get; for anything else it is the wrong box.
Price: $269.99 since the 24 November 2025 restock (launched at $249.99); Analogue's store could not be read on 4 November 2026, so check stock.
Sources: Engadget review Notebookcheck, price rise Held Games
The only legal way to play GameCube games on a modern TV without the original hardware
$5006 of 14 consoles at full speed
Nintendo Classics is emulation too, just emulation Nintendo sells. On the Switch 2 the Expansion Pack adds a GameCube library that no other current device offers legally: Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, Soulcalibur II, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion and more, in 4K, with a wireless GameCube pad sold alongside. Below it sit the NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, GBA and N64 catalogues. You get the games Nintendo chooses, at Nintendo's pace, for as long as you pay, and the N64 emulator's input lag is a long-running complaint. Since 2025 Nintendo's user agreement also lets it brick a console it catches running unauthorised software, so this is not a box to mod.
Price: $499.99 since 1 September 2026 (launched at $449.99), plus Nintendo Switch Online: $19.99 a year for NES, SNES, Game Boy and Genesis, or $49.99 with the Expansion Pack for N64, GBA and GameCube.
Sources: Gematsu, price rise Nintendo Life, Classics tiers Shacknews, GameCube list
Everything through the Switch and Wii U at 4K, in a box that hides behind the TV
$62913 of 14 consoles at full speed
A Radeon 780M mini PC is a Steam Deck's chip with more power budget, no screen and no battery, which for a TV box is the right trade. PS2, GameCube and Wii run upscaled to 4K with headroom, Wii U through Cemu is excellent, most Switch titles run through Eden or Citron at 1080p or better, and PlayStation 3 goes from "some games" on a Deck to most of the library here, still game by game. Batocera's 2026 releases target exactly this class of AMD hardware. It is three to five times the price of an N150 box, it has a fan you can hear under load, and nothing about it is plug-and-play.
Price: $629 on sale at bee-link.com on 23 June 2026 (list $799) for 16 GB and 512 GB; Minisforum and GMKtec boxes with the same Radeon 780M class run $380 to $640.
Sources: Front Desk Review, SER8 pricing Mini PC Lab, emulation tiers Tech Tactician, October 2026
One device for the couch and the sofa: a PC handheld that becomes a console in a dock
$78912 of 14 consoles at full speed
Docked, the Steam Deck OLED is a small Linux PC with the best-supported emulation setup there is: EmuDeck or RetroDECK installs and configures everything in under an hour, and the result handles PS2, GameCube, Wii and 3DS without a hitch, most of the Wii U library at full speed, most Switch games through the post-Yuzu forks and PlayStation 3 for some titles. Then you pull it out of the dock and take it to bed. The problem is the price: Valve added $240 in May 2026 for memory and storage costs, so a Ryzen mini PC now outperforms it on the TV for $160 less. Buy the Deck if you want the handheld too; our handheld guide covers that side.
Price: $789 for 512 GB and $949 for 1 TB since 27 May 2026, up from $549 and $649; add a USB-C dock (Valve's is $89, any hub works).
Sources: Gematsu, price rise Held Games, Wii U guide Held Games, Eden vs Kenji NX vs Citron
| Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro | Evercade VS-R | MiSTer Pi Mega Pack | ModRetro M64 | GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus (Intel N150) | Raspberry Pi 5 kit (8 GB) | Analogue 3D | Nintendo Switch 2 with Nintendo Classics | Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8745HS) | Steam Deck OLED, docked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $90 | $100 | $160 | $230 | $247 | $250 | $270 | $500 | $629 | $789 |
| Approach | Software emulation | Official and licensed | FPGA | FPGA | Software emulation | Software emulation | FPGA | Official and licensed | Software emulation | Software emulation |
| Plays well up to | PS1 and older | 16-bit and arcade | PS1 and older | Nintendo 64 only | Dreamcast and N64 | Dreamcast and N64 | Nintendo 64 only | GameCube and older, Nintendo only | Switch, Wii U and 3DS | Switch, Wii U and 3DS |
| Chip | Amlogic S905X2 (4× Cortex-A53) | ARM SoC (not disclosed) | Intel Cyclone V SE FPGA (110K logic elements) | AMD Artix UltraScale+ FPGA | Intel N150 (4 cores, 24-EU UHD graphics) | Broadcom BCM2712 (4× Cortex-A76, VideoCore VII) | Intel Cyclone 10 GX FPGA (220K logic elements) | Nvidia T239 (8× Cortex-A78C, Ampere GPU) | AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS (8 cores, Radeon 780M) | AMD custom APU (Zen 2, RDNA 2) |
| RAM | 2 GB | Not disclosed | 128 MB SDRAM module | Not disclosed | 16 GB DDR4 | 8 GB LPDDR4X | Not disclosed | 12 GB LPDDR5X | 16 or 32 GB DDR5 | 16 GB LPDDR5 |
| Video out | HDMI, 4K menus, games at 720p or lower | HDMI 1080p, TATE mode for vertical arcade games | HDMI up to 1536p, plus VGA and analog RGB for CRTs | HDMI with scanline and CRT filters; a 240p adapter is in development | HDMI 2.0, 4K60 | Two micro-HDMI, up to 4K60 | HDMI 2.1, 4K, HDR, VRR, CRT and PVM display modes | HDMI 2.1, 4K60 docked | HDMI 2.1 and USB4, 4K60 and above | DisplayPort 1.4 through the dock, up to 4K60 |
| Size | about 10 × 10 × 2 cm | about 20 × 15 × 4 cm | about 10 × 8 × 5 cm stacked | about 23 × 18 × 6 cm | about 11 × 11 × 4 cm | board 8.5 × 5.6 cm; about 10 × 10 × 4 cm in a case | about 23 × 18 × 6 cm | dock about 20 × 11 × 5 cm | about 13.5 × 13.5 × 4.5 cm | 298 × 117 × 49 mm, plus the dock |
| Controllers | Two wireless pads in the box; USB and Bluetooth | One wired Evercade pad; four USB ports | USB and Bluetooth; original pads through SNAC adapters | Four original N64 ports; USB-C | USB and Bluetooth | USB and Bluetooth | Four original N64 ports; two USB-A; 8BitDo 64 pad sold separately | Joy-Con 2 and Pro Controller; wireless N64, SNES and GameCube pads sold separately | USB and Bluetooth | Built in, plus USB and Bluetooth |
| Games | Pre-loaded ROMs of unknown origin (not licensed) | Licensed cartridges, about $20 to $25 each | Your own ROMs on a microSD card | Original Nintendo 64 cartridges, plus new indie carts | Your own ROMs | Your own ROMs | Original Nintendo 64 cartridges only | Nintendo's curated catalogue, on subscription | Your own ROMs | Your own ROMs, plus your Steam library |
| Fan | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| System | Android 9 and EmuELEC (dual boot) | Evercade (sealed) | MiSTer (Linux plus open-source cores) | ModRetro firmware (open-source N64 core) | Windows 11; Batocera or Bazzite free | Batocera, RetroPie or Recalbox (free) | Analogue OS | Nintendo (sealed) | Windows 11; Batocera or Bazzite free | SteamOS 3 (Linux) |
| Consoles at full speed | 4 of 14 | 3 of 14 | 4 of 14 | 1 of 14 | 7 of 14 | 6 of 14 | 1 of 14 | 6 of 14 | 13 of 14 | 12 of 14 |
| Released | 2022 | 2024 | 2024 | July 2026 | 2025 | 2023 | November 2025 | June 2025 | 2024 | November 2023 |
The Analogue 3D shipped on 18 November 2025 and went up to $269.99 a week later for tariffs. The ModRetro M64 followed on 28 July 2026 at $229.99 on a bigger AMD FPGA, running the open MiSTer N64 core, and ModRetro says it will publish its improvements. Both play cartridges only.
Three price rises driven by the DRAM shortage took the Pi 5 to $110 (4 GB), $180 (8 GB) and $305 (16 GB) by October 2026. Tom's Hardware noted in January that a finished Pi kit now costs the same as an Intel N150 mini PC, which plays more. A Pi 6 is confirmed but not close.
Retro Remake's MiSTer Pi brought a full MiSTer kit under $160, and its SuperStation One put one in a PlayStation-shaped shell for $249. Both sold out in batches through 2026; QMTECH clones on AliExpress filled the gap at around €150.
Playmaji re-engineered the Polymega with a faster processor and a tray-loading drive, selling it in batches of a thousand for holiday 2026 delivery. It rose to $599 on 5 October 2026, and the $229 Polymega Remix USB digitiser lets any PC read your original discs.
A May 2025 user agreement lets Nintendo brick a console that runs unauthorised software; Switch 2 owners using MIG Flash carts were banned within two weeks of launch. Judgments followed: $2 million against a mod-chip seller, $17,500 against a streamer, and $4.5 million in September 2026 against a Reddit piracy-shop moderator. February 2026 DMCA notices cleared Sudachi, Suyu, Citron and MeloNX from GitHub; Eden, Kenji NX and Citron continue off it. No emulator plays Switch 2 games.
The Steam Deck OLED went to $789 and $949 on 27 May 2026, and the LCD model was discontinued. Valve's Steam Machine, a SteamOS desktop with a discrete GPU, shipped on 29 June 2026 at $1,049 and $1,349. There are no emulation benchmarks for it yet; expect it to sit above the Ryzen mini PC.
An emulation console, for this list, is anything you plug into a television to play games from older consoles: an FPGA box that re-creates the hardware, a computer running software emulators, or an official device that sells the games and the emulator together. We chose ten that reviewers and the community agreed on in 2026, one or two per approach and budget: Held Games' device pages and reviews, Engadget, Notebookcheck, Tom's Hardware, Starry Hope and Mini PC Lab's mini-PC guides, Batocera's own hardware guide, the MiSTer forum, and the cited manufacturer pages. Devices without an independent review, or not shipping yet, appear in the news section but not the list: the Polymega, the SuperStation One Lite, the Steam Machine and the Evercade Nexus.
For most people an Intel N150 mini PC, about $247, running Batocera: it plays everything through the Dreamcast and PSP at full speed and most of the PlayStation 2 and GameCube. If you want the most accurate picture of 8-bit, 16-bit and PS1 games, the MiSTer Pi FPGA kit ($160) beats any software box. If you want Switch, Wii U or PS3 on the TV, a Ryzen 780M mini PC such as the Beelink SER8 ($629) is the floor.
FPGA if you play games from before 2000 and care about accuracy and lag: a MiSTer, an Analogue or a ModRetro re-creates the original chips and plays with under a frame of delay, but stops at PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64. Software if you want anything newer, or the widest library for the money: a mini PC or Pi plays more systems and upscales them, at the cost of a few frames of lag and some setup.
For the project, yes; for value, no longer. After three price rises in 2026 the 8 GB board is $180 and a finished kit is about $250, the same as an Intel N150 mini PC that plays more. The Pi 5 handles everything through N64 and Dreamcast well and cannot do PS2 or GameCube. Buy the 4 GB board ($110) if you only need PS1 and older.
A Radeon 780M mini PC or a docked Steam Deck plays both at full speed, upscaled. An Intel N150 box plays most of each at native resolution with trouble on the heaviest titles. A Raspberry Pi 5, a MiSTer and the $90 Android boxes cannot, whatever the box says. The Switch 2 plays a curated GameCube catalogue through Nintendo Classics.
A Raspberry Pi 5 4 GB (about $180 as a kit) or an Intel N150 mini PC ($247) runs most of the library through software. To play your own cartridges with original controllers, the ModRetro M64 ($230, plus a pad) is the cheapest FPGA option and the Analogue 3D ($270) adds 4K and HDR. Nintendo Classics on a Switch 2 has a few dozen N64 games on subscription.
The devices, the emulators and the FPGA cores are legal in the United States and most countries; the games are the question. Playing your own cartridges on an Analogue or ModRetro, or licensed cartridges on an Evercade, is entirely legal. Dumping games you own for a MiSTer or mini PC is widely regarded as legitimate. Boxes sold with thousands of pre-loaded games, such as the Super Console X, contain unlicensed copies.
No. As of November 2026 there is no public emulator for Switch 2 games on any device. Switch 1 games run on a Ryzen mini PC, a docked Steam Deck or a ROG Xbox Ally X through Eden, Kenji NX or Citron, the forks that continued after Yuzu shut down; Nintendo's February 2026 DMCA notices removed several of them from GitHub but they are still developed.
If you only play on the TV, a Ryzen 780M mini PC ($629) outperforms a docked Steam Deck OLED ($789 plus a dock) and costs less. If you also want to play in bed or on a plane, the Deck is the better buy because it is both. Either runs EmuDeck or Batocera and plays through Switch and Wii U.
Gander Games makes free retro-style browser games and has no connection to any manufacturer on this list. There are no affiliate links on this page. Our guide to emulation handhelds covers the portable side of the same question.